Tunnel Brute

Tunnel brutes are immensely strong, close to 8 feet tall and more than 5 feet across, with slabs of muscle rippling under thick, scaly hide. Every limb ends in huge claws. The head sits directly on the shoulders and holds a heavy maw ringed with triangular teeth plus 8-inch mandibles that shear through any hide or bone. Strangest of all are four round eyes set in a row across the brow, each a dark spot about the size of a small coin. The body is black, fading to a yellowish gray on the chest and belly. Tunnel brutes have a language of their own.

These are intelligent hunters. A favorite trick is to tunnel up beside a main passage and lurk there, watching through a crack until something tasty passes, then burst through the wall. Victims of this ambush take a -5 penalty to surprise. Brutes also arrange cave-ins and dig blind tunnels where they can sit and let prey come to them. They burrow at 10 feet per turn through hard rock and up to 60 feet per turn in loose soil.

In close combat the great claws do most of the work, backed by a savage bite. Meeting the creature's gaze is the real danger: anyone who looks into its eyes must save vs. spell or be affected as by the confusion spell. Its two outer eyes also grant it infravision out to 90 feet.

Their one weakness is speed. A tunnel brute plods heavily and keeps its footing poorly in wide open areas. It almost never fights to the death, since cornering something that digs through stone is very hard. If badly pressed, it will happily bring the roof down, with a 25% chance of success each round, and dig its way out.

These predators live deep underground and treat dungeons the way an anteater treats an anthill, raiding one, gorging, and moving on so the 'colony' can restock. Most hunt alone. A pair mates and parts, and about a year later the female bears one to three young in a nursery chamber she has carved out. After two more years the hulklings are large enough to join her on hunts, which is when explorers may face several brutes at once.

No brute culture is known, but rumors tell of underground cities whose tunnels radiate like spider web strands toward nearby dungeons and mountains, which would explain how brutes appear and vanish at will and always hide their tracks.

Tunnel brutes feed on young purple worms, ankhegs and other burrowing beasts, but their preferred meal is human.

The vodyanoi is a close aquatic cousin that lurks in deep freshwater lakes and rivers. It looks much like a tunnel brute but has just two eyes and so lacks the confusing gaze. Its green skin is slimy over a thick, lumpy hide, and its claws are webbed. It hunts any creature but favors human flesh, and it can tear open the hulls of small craft, often swamping or capsizing little boats. Once per day it can call for help from 1-20 electric eels, though the summons works only half the time (50%). A larger, fiercer saltwater kind is rumored but unconfirmed.